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by artemis-nz
Summary: Usagi's bedside manner might need some improvement, but even if he won't admit it, Misaki is grateful anyway. Usagi/Misaki.


_Sunday_

Misaki blearily opens his eyes when he feels Usagi slip under the sheets and pull him close. Usagi's hands, as usual, are freezing.

"I'm not your stupid teddy bear", Misaki complains – in part because Usagi has woken him up, but also because he's in a bad mood anyway. His throat has been bothering him all day, and it's taken hours for him to fall asleep.

Usagi only mutters something incomprehensible back – the man seems barely conscious himself – and snuggles in closer. Misaki sighs and resigns himself to being smothered.

* * *

_Monday_

"Oi. Misaki. The alarm."

Misaki's eyes snap open. The light filtering through the curtains should be cheery, but instead only seems harsh and thoroughly unwelcome. With a groan, Misaki reaches an arm out to the bedside table, fumbles around for his cellphone, and switches the alarm off.

Usagi, who has no doubt also been woken by the shrill beeping, nuzzles up to Misaki's neck and soon begins to snore again. Misaki decides that it's going to be too much trouble to try and prise Usagi off him, and anyway, he feels terrible. He pulls the covers over his head and tries not to think about how he wants to throw up.

* * *

_Tuesday_

"You should eat something", Usagi declares. Demands.

"I'm not hungry."

"I don't care."

Misaki's glare is as ineffectual as it usually is, and Usagi pays it no mind whatsoever as he leaves to blunder about in the kitchen. At some point there comes to the inevitable sound of glass shattering as Usagi knocks something off the bench or causes something to explode in the microwave, but by this time, Misaki is too busy feeling miserable to really care.

He tries to squirm away when the taller man finally comes back to shovel some kind of thick and entirely unappealing soup down Misaki's throat, but then Usagi threatens to call Takahiro, and Misaki shuts up and allows himself to be force-fed, grumbling under his breath all the while.

Uncharacteristically, Usagi says nothing at all in reply.

* * *

_Wednesday_

It's too hot, but when Usagi sees that Misaki has dislodged the blankets from the bed, he bundles them right back up again and then hunts down an extra one for good measure.

"Don't you dare move them", Usagi warns, and Misaki is too tired to give a proper retort. He tries to tell Usagi to stop fussing instead, but he ends up coughing halfway through his sentence and can't seem to get his breath back afterwards.

By the time the burning in his throat finally eases enough that he can lie still again, Usagi is sitting on the bed next to him, brushing the hair back from Misaki's forehead and saying something about a doctor.

Misaki bluntly refuses, and when it looks as though Usagi might ignore him and call a doctor anyway, Misaki appeases him by asking if Usagi can help him to the bathroom. He feels sweaty and sticky, and please will Usagi-san help him shower?

Usagi shuts up immediately, and Misaki does his best to hide the fact that he can barely walk down the hallway without leaning on Usagi for support.

* * *

_Thursday_

"Enough. You're still burning up, and you haven't been able to keep anything down since last night."

"I don't _need_ a doctor. I just need more sleep." Misaki knows he is whining, recognises deep down that Usagi is probably right, but loathes the thought of somebody else touching him right now. As odd as it seems, his skin crawls with the thought of anyone else's hands on him but Usagi's.

Usagi is looking at him with concern and something else Misaki can't identify, and it's enough to make him shiver and squeeze his eyes shut. Embarrassment keeps him from saying so, but the sole thing Misaki currently desires is for Usagi to put his arms around him again and hold him until it's over.

The doctor comes. Misaki hates every second of it. Only the fact that Usagi stays in the room the entire time, his rumbling voice a reassuring counterpoint to Misaki's frantically beating heart, makes the ordeal a bearable one.

* * *

_Friday_

"… ki…"

Misaki stirs.

"Mi… ki."

He tries to block out the sound, but it is insistent.

"Misaki. Misaki, wake up…. it's alright now. Just look at me, look only at me…"

He sniffs, blinks his eyes open, feels the salty warmth on his cheeks.

"You were crying in your sleep", Usagi tells him quietly, and his words are not mocking.

"I… I want… I didn't mean-" The darkness is confusing to him, the sheets a tangled mess, and Usagi's kindness is for some reason only making Misaki want to cry harder.

"Ssh. Go back to sleep. I'll be right here."

Gradually, Misaki calms down enough to realise that it's probably ridiculously early in the morning, and that Usagi is lying close enough for his hair to be tickling Misaki's neck as he breathes.

That last thought is comforting enough for Misaki to forget whatever it was he has been dreaming about, and he feels just brave enough to be able to close his eyes again.

* * *

_Saturday_

Usagi hands him another glass of water, which Misaki drinks gratefully even though it tastes powdery and bitter.

"You look better", Usagi comments. "The medicine seems to be working just fine."

Misaki makes a face and swallows the last of it. He's apparently recovered enough to be grouchy again at least, although he's not quite feeling up to arguing.

Even if his voice wasn't so hoarse though, Misaki doubts he'd say much anyway. The sight of the dark rings under Usagi's eyes make him uneasy and yet strangely, almost pleasantly light-headed at the same time.

* * *

_Sunday_

"No."

"Come on, Misaki. And here you seemed so eager for me to wash your back last time-"

"I said, _no_."

Usagi swoops suddenly in for a kiss, and Misaki retaliates by chucking the nearest pillow at him and declaring that Usagi isn't allowed to so much as look at him with that lecherous expression for a week. Probably longer though, because Usagi is a pervert. One with a writing deadline.

Usagi, much to Misaki's surprise, looks happy as the younger man yells at him. Even weirder is the fact that Misaki finds he cannot bear to wipe that smile from Usagi's face. When they fall asleep together that night, Misaki doesn't even have the heart to try and push him further away.

The snores coming irritatingly close to his ear feel like home.


End file.
